Abstract

Traditional idea of city as a patchwork of communities is now topical more than ever. Several studies stress environmental and socio-economic costs of sprawling urban forms. Environmentally, we are facing increasingly consumption of energy due to the spread of single-family detached houses or semi-detached houses and to the transportation of building materials, the high production of Co² due to private mobility, intrinsically connected to such urban development form - urban sprawl - and land use, according to available European and Italian data. Socio-economic problems include traffic congestion and its effects, costs related to construction of infrastructures (especially road ones) necessary for serving such settlements, economic and time costs of work mobility. A return to compact city, based on “new neighborhood” as an organized form of eco-friendly social cohesion seems to be the only way towards a society that is going to be more and more urban.